The Twelve Days of Christmas and party Dec. 20, 2013

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Christmas Bingo

We had a blast in the library on Thursday.  Our wonderful and creative librarian let us come in and play Christmas bingo.  It was a fun break from all our classroom work.

I'm not sure what the grumpy faces are all about!  They really were having fun!  We'll get to do something fun in the library every day (the rest of the month.)  Monday will be hot cocoa!

Be watching for Rodney the Reindeer to come to your home.  A book and a spiral notebook journal will come with him.  This is for fun and also for a language arts grade.  We will do this instead of regular comprehension homework.  Please be sure your child brings him back to school the very next day so every student will have a turn.  

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Love,
Mrs. Cooper

Galloway Family Night

Family Night will be next Wednesday November 20th from 4:30 - 6:00.  This night will only be for K- 2nd grade. 

You are invited to come to our classroom to play (classroom) games, see the kinds of activities that we do, visit and enjoy refreshments.  It will be a great time to see what we are working on and how we practice what we are learning.




Parents must be with their child for Family Night.  If a child does not have a parent present, they must go home.  This event is for that student only...no siblings. Upper grades will have their Family Night scheduled for a different date later on in the year.

Come enjoy the fun!

NO TUTORING ON TUESDAY (11-12-13)

I would love to come see my students play their sports and do their out of school activities.  If you would like for me to come, please send a copy of the schedule.  I can't promise that I will be there on a particular day but I will do my very best to come at some time.

Here are a few more pumpkin pictures.  

Hedgie in Hedgie Blasts Off

Mouse from Halloween Mice

Mouse, in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

we save  up our recess for the week and take it all at one time,  We go out in the morning when there isn't anyone else out on the playground.  Sometmes we have free time in the classroom if the weather is too cold.  Fortunately we had at least one last beautiful day to go outside and play!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love, 
Deedee Cooper

Class Memories so far

Happy Halloween!  I hope you enjoy the slideshow!  The boys and girls took such nice pictures with their character pumpkins that I was inspired to put this together for them. The projects were wonderful!  Everyone got to present theirs to the class.  I am expecting a few more tomorrow so we have more fun to look forward to.  Thank you for supporting your child with decorating the pumpkin and writing the report.  I do know that can be a lot of work. We are studying characters and their motivations and feelings at school so this project fits right in with our curriculum.   Have fun tonight! Deedee Cooper

Week 8 and 9

Galloway's Second Grade Teachers

Here we are waiting for the Hispanic Heritage Parade!

Galloway's dress in traditional hispanic clothes was a huge success...our classroom, well not as much but it was fun watching the parade.   The dresses were beautiful.  Here are a few pictures of some of our boys that I took.

This coming week is Red Ribbon Week (say no to drugs.)  There is a theme to what we can wear every day.

Monday: Wear as much red as possible.
Tuesday:  Hawaiian clothes
Wednesday: Neon or bling
Thursday: Mismatched or crazy socks
Friday:  "Say no to drugs" type shirts or a team shirt

Conferences are next week. I am looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child's progress, needs and goals.  If you haven't signed up for a conference be watching for a note in your child's folder.

Our students who need reading acceleration do a computer program called i-station every day at school.  They take an assessment every month that I can use to plan other intervention as necessary.  Although only acceleration students do i-station at school, Mrs. Mingle has made it available to every second grader for home use!  You will get instructions on how to access the program online at our conference. Your child works at his own level and it's lots of fun!

Homework:  

Spelling:  Same as always.  Your child does get a grade for this and doing it also brings your child's test grade up to passing if he does not pass. DUE ON FRIDAYS!

Book: Most days, your child should bring a book home to either practice (read three times) or to read for twenty minutes.  The book should be returned to school in your child's folder every day!  We can not practice reading if the book is left at home.

Comprehension:  Your child will be taking home grade level reading on Mondays.  Your child should read the passage every night and do the comprehension activity assigned for that night.  Your child may need help reading and completing the homework but it is very important for reading and comprehension progress.  This homework is also DUE ON FRIDAYS.  The weekly assessment will be questions over that weekly reading.

Have a great weekend!  See you at conferences next week!

October 9

My husband and I at the fair

I can't believe I didn't see any of you at the fair!  I haven't been for several years until this year.  It was a beautiful day.

Early release is next Thursday, Oct.17.  Your child should be picked up at 11:55.

We are learning the difference of main idea and topic in Reading.  We are still working on non-fiction text features.  We are learning how to write a report in English.  In Math we are working on how to tell when to add or subtract in problem solving.  We are learning about air and weather in Science.

Tomorrow I am sending home a schedule for parent/teacher conferences that will be held the week of Oct. 21.  There is also field trip and other important information note and Red Ribbon week info.  Be looking for that in your child's green folder. Oh and by the way, please have your child bring the folder every day! :)

Thank you to the parents who are more with it than I am and sent in their child's field trip money ahead of time!   If you have not sent  in the money, please send it in by next Thursday, Oct. 17.  We don't go until March but we have to pay way before then.

Report cards go home tomorrow.  Sign and return them on Friday and your child gets TWO FUZZIES!

See you at conferences,

Deedee Cooper

Comprehension: questioning the text before, during and after
Writing:  Writing about what you're passionate about
Math:  Subtraction 
Science:  Weather
Social Studies:  Maps

Important Information for you to know:

*Six week "check points" (reading and math tests) are Tuesday and Wednesday.

*Parent Conferences:  October 21, 22 and 23

*Popsicle Party!  The second grade won the contest by bringing in the most volunteers!  They will celebrate with a popsicle on Thursday.

*Parent Connect:  This is a great way to keep track of your child's grades.  Email me with questions!

I took this video today in Music.  I love to see them playing instruments!

Week 5 1/2

Field Trip:  We are planning a field trip in March to the Children's Theater but the deposit to hold our seats is due on September 26.  The cost is $9.

Teacher Conferences:  October 21, 22 and 23.  I will hold conferences on these days between 3:15 and 6:00. There is no schedule yet but if there is a certain time that you need let me know now.  

Book it!  This is a reading incentive program sponsored by Pizza Hut.  If your child meets the monthly reading goal he/she will be rewarded with a coupon for a FREE one topping personal pan pizza!  The goal for October is to read 320 minutes.  That's only 20 minutes four times a week for four weeks! I will be making a big deal out of this at school!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUBS: I will be sending home book order forms once a month.  You are in no way obligated to order books but this is an inexpensive way to add to your child's book collection.  We also get points to spend for new books for our classroom when you do order.

Learning in the classroom (or on the playground!)

Here are a few pictures and a video of the students launching their parachutes.  Learning about air and how air is everywhere has been fun!  

Week 5

This week we are learning:

Reading:  Questioning while reading
Math:  Patterns and Relationships in numbers; additive and growing patterns, addition and subtraction
Phonics/Spelling:  soft and hard sounds of Gg and Cc
Science:  Air
Social Studies:  Types of communities (rural, suburban, cities)

SECRET WORD:  Autumn


Exploration with air under water

College shirts!

College Week

What we're learning this week:

Reading and Writing:  Non-fiction text features
Math:  Patterns
Spelling:  Review-CVCe words with blends and digraphs
cupcake, bedtime, statewide, baseline, spike, shone, shake, smile, grape, shade, close, chose
Science:  Air
Tuesday-Thursday:  COGAT testing

This week is college week and everyday is a special day.  Today was wear  your college shirt.  Those who wore a college shirt got to be in a picture that will be on the school blog and also displayed in the school.  I will post it here once I get it downloaded. Tomorrow is wear a college hat.  

I am making a big deal to the kids to MONITOR their reading.  As they read they should be thinking and asking themselves Does this make sense?  

Here are a few pictures that I took last week during and after a word sort.  You can't tell by looking but they are sorting the words in many different ways...by first letter, by vowel sound, by digraph or blend, number of letters...whatever they come up with.  Monday's spelling homework was sorting their words.  They all know what to do with that.  They are supposed to return their words to school tomorrow but there will be nothing to turn in for Monday's homework on Friday.  

You can see that they are having fun practicing their spelling patterns.  Hope you enjoy these!

Deedee Cooper